I called this 2.5 years ago. Consortia blockchains are a poor fit for businesses and very difficult to hold together. We'll see many proof of concept attempts, but I suspect all of them will fall into disuse.
https://t.co/NTAhvEo5yJ

1/What people and investors fail to realize about permissioned blockchains is that it doesn't solve anything technologically in a supply chain. In fact, it just makes it more inefficient 'cuz you can solve the problem through a shared centralized database.https://t.co/ViQtOE1GvKhttps://t.co/fw8iP1Qeim

Because IBM and Accenture are both paragons of integrity, ethics and product/service quality, while not just being out to grab all the cash they can milk out of their customers giving very little for it, I expect truly great things from this Blockchain Race.

Ah yes, I can see it now. An entire container of bananas being dumped into the ocean because someone entered that it was a shipment of plantains on the buttchain, and because the buttchain is immutable they have no choice but to destroy the merchandise to ensure that reality matches the buttchain.

You can just create a transaction with the exact opposing references and numbers, name it “reversal xxx”, and then create the correct one. Exactly the same as it’s done in normal accounting systems for decades. Right?

Accounting entries are intangible, logistics entries are physically tangible.
Changing a tangible entry on transit is tantamount to mis-declaration, and subject to appropriate customs laws. Just like passengers on flight, the airline can't change anybody's name on manifesto (tangible), but they can change the amount of fare paid in case there's an error(intangible).

You can change entries on transit without mid-declaring. It happens hundreds of times a day...to avoid mid-declaration.
Passengers names get changed on hundreds of flights daily too whenever tickets are cancelled and re-bought.
FFS, man. It’s 2018 and we’re actually saying this?

Yes, but you cannot fundamentally change a block in a blockchain. You can add data later on that contradicts that block, but that block will always be in the blockchain in an incorrect and garbage state. There is no way to amend it.

True. But /u/jawatdan 's point is that this is fundamentally how most accounting systems work. You never edit an incorrect transaction; you create a reversal transaction that 'undoes' it (i.e. zeroes out the mistake), and then enter the correct data as a new transaction.
That way you have a complete history.

I think it works in this scenario, where it is mostly a privatized blockchain that is controlled by IBM and Maersk. But at that point there's no real need for the blockchain itself.
In a real decentralized blockchain you'd have no way to force users to enter the correction events into the log. So counterparty trust is very much still an issue.

Also, blockchain parties in dank basements on acid with glowsticks and dance parties where you can Bitcoin the vending machine for light beer are way cooler than some weird nerds with CS and library degrees in an office maintaining a database.
Get with the times, brah!

Shipping giant Maersk and tech provider IBM are wrestling with this problem with TradeLens, their distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform for supply chains.

Some 10 months ago, the project was spun off from Maersk (the largest container shipping company on the planet) into a joint venture with IBM. But in that time the network has enticed only one other carrier onto the platform: Pacific International Lines (PIL), one of eight shipping lines in Asia and 17th in the world based on cargo volumes.